Mercedes’ latest entry-level sedan will inaugurate the model’s new method to balancing each gas-powered and electrical powertrains. Consumers can select whether or not they need the 2026 Mercedes-Benz CLA as a hybrid or an electrical car (EV). Both method, they’ll get the identical physique fashion and largely the identical function checklist beneath the identical title.
Mercedes has not revealed pricing for the 2026 CLA. The 2025 mannequin on vendor heaps right this moment begins at $45,550, together with a $1,150 vacation spot charge. The brand new one arrives in dealerships “later this 12 months.”
Mercedes-Benz Hopes You Like Three-Pointed Stars
The CLA retains its four-door coupe styling with a modern physique that appears a pure evolution from the 2025 mannequin.
Its most putting function could also be its grille, which consists of dozens of tiny chrome variations of the Mercedes three-pointed star emblem surrounding…properly…a big model of the Mercedes three-pointed star emblem. Even the small ones can be found backlit. The daytime working lights within the headlight clusters are formed just like the Mercedes three-pointed star emblem.
We’ll go away you guessing as to the taillight form, however when you’ve been studying intently, you’ve inferred it.
Till not too long ago, Mercedes EV designs have had a lozenge look that didn’t please longtime followers. That’s a part of why the corporate introduced its plan to ditch separate EV designs and easily promote most vehicles with a alternative of powertrains.
The CLA is the primary design since that announcement and does a pleasant job of mixing the extra angular shapes of its latest gas-powered vehicles with the EV design scheme to supply a genuinely enticing sedan.
All-New Inside Design Scheme
Its cabin is a whole departure from present Mercedes design. Gone are the slanted dashboard and the excessive middle console separating the driving force from the passenger. As a substitute is a near-vertical setup. A brand new model of Mercedes’ door-to-door Superscreen is non-obligatory and the one mannequin proven to the press up to now.
Mercedes says it’s now powered by the Unity Recreation Engine. It permits customers to group apps into folders like a smartphone and open and shut features with swiping motions.
Mercedes says it’s powered by “the primary in-car infotainment system to combine synthetic intelligence (AI) from each Microsoft and Google. This combines a number of AI brokers in a single system for the primary time.” A brand new MBUX (Mercedes-Benz Person Expertise) Digital Assistant “allows the sorts of advanced, multi-turn dialogues one might need with a good friend and has short-term reminiscence.”
It makes use of Microsoft Bing expertise to look the Web for solutions to common questions.
Common over-the-air updates will maintain the car updated and will stop house owners from needing to carry it in for some recall work. Mercedes says the brand new mannequin supplies extra legroom for the driving force and entrance passenger, and extra head- and leg-room for rear seat passengers than the 2025 version.
Select Your Powertrain
Consumers will be capable of order the CLA as a hybrid or an EV.
The electrical model will attain dealerships first. They’ll provide it in two variations. The CLA 250+ with EQ Expertise will boast 268 horsepower and rear-wheel drive (RWD). The CLA 350 4MATIC with EQ Expertise will likely be all-wheel drive (AWD) with 349 hp from a pair of electrical motors.
Mercedes has revealed specs just for Europe, which limits what we all know in regards to the car. European testing tends to foretell far longer driving ranges than America’s EPA predicts.
The corporate says the longest-range model will stand up to 492 miles between costs in European testing.
An 800-volt structure and the power to just accept as much as 320 kW ought to permit for quicker charging than most EVs at present available on the market, however few public chargers in America put out power that quick.
Hybrid editions will come later, utilizing a hybrid system that integrates the electrical motor straight into the transmission. These variations will use a 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine, however Mercedes has not revealed how a lot energy it produces.
An Vital Car for Mercedes
The CLA is historically not a powerful vendor for Mercedes. The model routinely sells greater than 4 occasions as many C-Class sedans in a median month.
However this mannequin inaugurates the corporate’s new pick-your-powertrain method and an all-new inside design scheme. It’s additionally historically one of many lowest-priced fashions on the lot (solely the GLA SUV is cheaper in 2025), making it many consumers’ first alternative to contemplate a Mercedes.
We’ll be watching fastidiously to see how the general public receives the brand new design language and powertrain philosophy. On paper, this has the potential to resume the religion of some longtime followers upset by the model’s early EV efforts.
